Page 5 of The Malevolent Eight
Alice was the most suspicious of me, mostly on account of me having abandoned my role as a Glorian Justiciar. She had devoted herself to just such a calling, despite the fact thatno waywas any demoniacevergoing to be inducted into the order. Deep down, she must have known that Hazidan Rosh, the greatest and also most rebellious Justiciar who’d ever lived, had put her on a completely futile path. And yet. . . Alice couldn’t give up her pursuit of that impossible dream.
‘I’ve got my eye on you, Fallen One,’ she warned me, laying low a demoniac Burrowmancer who’d somehow convinced himself that one of those creepy three-foot-long centipedes they’d used on the angelics could get around her whip-sword.
Alice’s blade sliced through both soldier and centipede with ease.
You could admit to her what you did, I tried to convince myself.You could tell all of them why you chose a form of magic so inherently dangerous that someday soon, you’ll likely become as big a threat as the Aurorals and Infernals together. Come on, Cade, just spit it out. Make them see why what you did wasn’trecklessbutnecessary: an act of sublime self-sacrifice for which, really, they should be applauding you.
Yeah. That was never going to fly. Alice would definitely try to kill me when she found out. Corrigan would attempt to stop her, of course; my best friend would surely consider it his own personal duty to carry the pain and blast me out of existence himself.
‘Cade, are you all right?’ asked Shame, coming to my side. Looked like there were some demoniac trident fighters there after all, as I recognised the viscous remains of their internal organs she was wiping off her fingers. Angelic Emissaries, once freed from the laws imprinted upon their spirits by the Lords Celestine, can learn to unleash their flesh-sculpting powers upon bodies besides their own. It may not be the most painful way to die, but it’s definitely the gooiest. ‘I can sense your desire for the violence to end,’ she announced. ‘Why aren’t you calling for a ceasefire?’
That’s the other problem with Angelic Emissaries. The Lords Celestine created them to embody the physical ideals most prized by those with whom they came into contact, and that was mostly to present diplomatic entreaties. That in turn required an instinctual awareness of the desires of those they were sent to persuade. Although Shame had left the service of the Celestines, the yearnings of those around her still tugged at her transmutational abilities. I guess my particular yearnings were currently tugging hardest, because she’d shed her walking rhinoceros guise and was now a woman near to my own age, the same black hair and even a matching dent in her nose where mine had been broken by my fellow Glorian Justiciars shortly after I’d announced my departure from the order. The woman standing before me now could have passed for the sister I’d never had– and until this moment, had never realised how badly I wished were real.
‘We came to deliver the Lords Devilish a message,’ I reminded her, searching for some sign of forgiveness in her eyes and disgusted with us both when I found it there.
Is this you finally trying to connect with humanity, Shame?I wondered silently.Or is it more proof that you’ll never understand us at all?
I turned to Galass, who until now had turned her sanguinalist abilities only on the living weapons wielded by the Infernal troops. Blood mages, counter to what most people think, aren’t cackling warlocks spreading death wherever they go. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: their magic attunes them to the natural ebb and flow of life itself.
That’s why my next request was so unforgivable. ‘Finish them off,’ I told her.
Demoniac soldiers, whether Hellions, Burrowmancers, Mortarists, Subjugators or Schemelords, come armed with plenty of their own spells. Throughout the battle, their Infernal shields had protected them from magics that manifestedinsidethe target, but Corrigan, Alice, Shame, Aradeus and Temper now had them on the ropes. I might have given up my attunement to the Infernal realm, but I could still perceive the esoteric frequencies of their spells, which was how I knew their shields had begun to collapse enough for Galass to employ the most innate and intrusive ability of her sanguinalist magic. I wished there were some other way, but the Lords Devilish don’t care about a few soldiers killed here or there, and they certainly don’t give a shit about how many get taken captive.
‘Do it,’ I ordered her.
Young she might be, but Galass isn’t the sort of person to take commands, especially from me. Nonetheless, she’d understood the job when she’d signed up for it. Furrowing her brow, she extended both her arms and gave her body free reign to unleash the spell it so badly craved and which she, very much to her credit, fought so hard to deny it.
At first the magic manifested as little more than a hazing in the air between Galass and the demoniacs. Unlike human blood, the life-fluid of Infernals comes in all sorts of colours. It began to look like a rainstorm had appeared from a cloudless sky, the drops blown by a dozen different winds in a dozen different directions. Her silver gown was quickly showered in the myriad hues of blood seeping from the increasingly ashen flesh of the Infernal troops.
‘Void take me, that’s disgusting,’ Corrigan swore. He clamped a hand over his mouth and nose to keep the blood splatters flying towards Galass from getting inside him. ‘Temper, close your muzzle. You’re being gross.’
The kangaroo ignored the admonishment and kept hopping up and down in the air, jaws open wide to catch every droplet of demoniac blood. Try paintingthatimage on a portrait of seven heroic mages out to save the world.
Our enemies slumped one by one to the ground, their leathery skin engraved with the intricate symbols of their respective lineages turning paler as they died what must have felt to them a depressingly Mortal sort of death.
When it was over, I knelt by Galass, holding her hair as she vomited onto the desert sand. Her crimson tresses whipped out at me, the tips jabbing at my hands and arms. I ignored both them and the uncomfortable intimacy. I noticed neither Alice nor Shame were volunteering to take my place.
‘I’m okay,’ Galass said at last, trying to mask a sob. ‘I. . . I understand why it has to be this way.’
‘A grim duty,’ Aradeus said, keeping a respectful distance. ‘Take solace, Lady Galass, in the lives that will be saved by this unfortunate yet necessary violence, and trust in Brother Cade’s virtuous leadership of our coven.’
Why did the damned rat mage have to make me sound gallant right when I was about to commit an even more heinous act?
You wanted to save the world, I reminded myself.Now be a hero: go and kill some angels.
Chapter 4
Balancing the Scales
I waited until Galass was done voiding her guts along with the remains of her conscience before walking to the gallows and ascending the hastily assembled wooden stairs. The centipede nooses slowly strangling the angelics tried to attack me as I unwound them from their victims’ necks, but the curse I quietly cast upon them warped their aggressive instincts into something more akin to those of house cats curling up on a warm lap. Several of the centipedes began nuzzling my hands, which was more unnerving than when they were trying to stab me with their stingers. Even that, however, couldn’t compare to the stomach-churning enthusiasm of the Angelic Valiants I was freeing.
‘Bless you!’ they cried out in splendiferous harmony. The four of them, Auroral warriors of surpassing might, launched into a new song, no longer a lament but a triumphal anthem heralding the inevitable victory of the Lords Celestine.
‘Mind keeping it down?’ I asked, setting aside the last of the centipedes. The confused creature slithered down the steps of the gallows and into the desert in search of a life in this realm that had neither given birth to it nor had any place for it. There was an omen in there somewhere.
‘Rejoice, all of you!’ the tallest of the Valiants commanded the awestruck townsfolk below. He spread his arms wide as he shared the good news. ‘Today’s battle foretells of greater triumphs to come! No longer are you the wretched inhabitants of a forgotten town. Henceforth this pitiable settlement takes its rightful place as one small part of a magnificent, boundless city that will soon encompass this entire world. Arise, citizens of New Celestine!’
‘They’re already standing,’ I muttered, though it hardly mattered; Valiants have no measurable sense of humour.
